6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 1.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
A platoon of American and Finnish soldiers is driven deep into a Russian forest where its Captain discovers a terrifying secret.
Starring: Andrew Tiernan, Jouko Ahola, Samuel Vauramo, Mikko Leppilampi, Andreas WilsonHorror | 100% |
Action | 13% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 1.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
There’s a lot of talk about things like pink being the new black, or 50 being the new 40, but has anyone ever claimed that the end of the year holidays (whether those be Christmas or Hanukkah or even Fesitvus) are the new Hallowe’en? I’m not sure if there’s something in the creative waters that should be investigated, or some secret conspiracy on the part of several home video labels, but there have been a lot of zombie movies coming out over the past few weeks, a genre that would seem to be more at home in late October, surrounded by Jack-O-Lanterns, witches and various other ghouls and goblins. Even weirder, at least a few of them have placed zombies in a sort of historical context, often with supposedly real life characters as part of the undead (as with the recent Osombie, which featured none other than Osama bin Laden). Perhaps just as incredible as the glut of zombie movies is the fact that War of the Dead is only the latest film to feature zombies who are Nazis. A cursory search of the not always reliable internet reveals a surprisingly large amount of films that contain this very same premise, so perhaps Finnish writer-director Marko Makilaakso might have had a certain hubris in even attempting War of the Dead. If so, he was evidently brought down a peg or two over what was apparently one of the more tortuous production paths imaginable, a multi-year saga that saw stars come and go, production companies follow suit in alarmingly large numbers, and other trials and tribulations crop up which according to some sources accounted for an almost decade long travail between principal shooting starting and the film finally being released.
War of the Dead is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment One with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Director Makilaakso and cinematographer Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen evidently shot this feature in both 16mm and 35mm, and that results in a somewhat inconsistent appearance to various segments within the film. A lot of this feature takes place in very dark environs, and crush is quite rampant throughout a large swaths of the film, as is some digital noise. In the relatively few sequences where things are at least adequately lit, fine detail rises to at acceptable levels, but nothing in War of the Dead ever really pops with excellent clarity or sharpness. Because so much of the film is so dark, even the color scheme seems pretty drab almost all of the time, and a lot of the film has been color graded to that ice cold blue side of things that seems to be de rigeur in horror movies.
War of the Dead features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that is actually pretty masterful, at least when compared to the less than exciting video quality. As might be expected from a film set in wartime, a lot of the sound field is awash in gun fire, and there's an excellent sense of depth accorded several key battle scenes, especially the opening gunfight where Stone and his cohorts figure out they're fighting the undead. The zombies also have an almost ninja like tendency to swoop down from trees, and those moments are accompanied by some very effective foley effects. Dialogue is generally clean, though many of the actors speak in various accents (which in and of themselves are fairly inconsistent throughout the movie). Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is quite wide throughout the film.
War of the Dead kind of throws away its World War II setting after the exciting opening sequence, and one has to wonder after a while what really was the point of making this thing a World War II film to begin with. Everything about War of the Dead is pretty generic, so if mindless zombie fare is your cup of tea, there's no need to look much further. But, as mentioned above, with so many zombie films suddenly descending upon the viewing masses like, well, armies of the undead, you'd be hard pressed to single this one out as being anything even slightly out of the ordinary.
(Still not reliable for this title)
2004
2017
[Slipcover Edition Exclusive on Retailer]
1990
Nudo e selvaggio | Standard Edition
1985
1957
Phantom of the Subway | Standard Edition
1976
1986
Kung Fu Cannibals
1982
Uncut
2006
2005
World of the Dead: The Zombie Diaries / Dimension Extreme
2011
2009
2000
Santo en El Museo de Cera / Samson in the Wax Museum
1963
2002
2015
Limited | Theatrical 4K / Unrated BD
2005
2012
2012
2018